Figurines
C H A R T 10
Figurines have been extensively used for determining cultural relations and chronological sequence. This is particularly true in Mesoamerica where they are abundant, and archeologists have tended to follow Vaillant's example of setting up detailed classifica- tions. While very useful for correlating closely related phases, an attempt to use these classifications in a general survey of the Americas would lead to consider- able confusion. On chart 10 I have not attempted to impose any sort of classificatory arrangement, and merely placed arbitrarily selected examples in ap- proximate time position in each of the columns. It will be noticed that interest flagged in Middle and South America after A.D. 1, when the custom of mak- ing figurines in molds became common.
In the Valdivia Phase of Ecuador, both stone and pottery figurines occur (chart 10, 79-86; Meggers, Evans, and Estrada, 1965, pp. 95-96). Stone figurines are divided into three types which form a sequence through Phases A and B (3000-2000 B . C ) from thin, flat natural slabs with a few lines engraved on them to represent arms or legs (op. cit., fig. 50, pis. 117a-q, 187h-j), through slabs notched at the lower ends to represent legs, to those that have crude but recogniz- able human faces and arms. The earliest simple form has parallels in J a p a n , as the authors point out (op.
cit., pi. 187).
T h e pottery figurines are associated with Valdivia Periods B-D (chart 10, 79-84; op. cit., pp. 96-107, figs.
64-65). In contrast to the stone figurines, there is a decrease in realistic representation through the four types described. Beginning at 2000 B . C the nude females have elaborate hair arrangements, sometimes hanging down to the waist, and well-modeled torsos.
Between 2000 and 1500 B . C the heads become con- ventionalized, torsos are stylized, and legs are reduced to short stubs. After 1500 the features are even less clearly depicted.
Estrada (1962, fig. 7) gives a chronological diagram of the sequence of figurines in Ecuador. This shows that solid and hollow figurines with helmet-like head- gear (chart 10, 73-74; op. cit., fig. 71) first appear in the Late Formative (Chorrera), shortiy before 500 B.C. Variation multiplies between 500 and 1 B . C and includes male figures seated with crossed legs, wearing beards, and peaked caps (chart 10-70). Some of the female figures wear ankle length skirts; others are nude. Mold-made figurines appear in the first cen- turies of the present era, and the variety of types con- tinues, both hollow and solid. Animal figurines be- come part of the complex also, and h u m a n features are engraved on stone celts (chart 10-72).
Figurines are relatively rare in the Peruvian se- quences. At Kotosh, Izumi and Sono (1963, pp. 125- 126, pi. I l i a ) found four of stone, which resemble the stone figurines of Valdivia. Also, principally in the Kotosh Kotosh Phase (1200-800 B . C ) , they found 111
fragments of human figurines, and one fragment of an animal (chart 10, 88-89). Both standing and seated figures occur and examples are hollow as well as solid.
Some are crudely modeled seated females with poorly represented arms and legs, but judging from illustra- tions, the typology is not very clear. Wide incisions, sometimes ending in pits as in the Mesoamerican Olmec, were used to represent the mouth, and decora- tive incisions are common on face and body, some filled with white, red, or yellow post-fired paint. Tello
(1960, fig. 134) illustrates a crude stone figurine from Chavin de H u a n t a r (chart 10-87). This again has drilled pits at the ends of lines that represent the eye- brows. He mentions its resemblance to the figurines of Ancon and Paracas, where they are associated with Chavin style pottery. An early figurine from the north coast, dating about 1200 B . C , was found by Bird
(1962, fig. 52c) in the Huaca Prieta site; it is made of pottery, seated, knees raised, hands on knees, and wearing a pointed cap (chart 10-93).
In Colombia, adornos modeled in the form of animals and occasionally human heads, begin in Puerto Hormiga and are particularly prominent in the Malambo Phase (1000-700 B . C ) . Angulo Valdes (1963, pi. 7a) illustrates a human head that might have come from a figurine (chart 10-69). The first certain occurrence of figurines (chart 10-68) is in Momil i (800-400 B.C.): they are solid, and are made of a cream colored clay without slip (Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. and A., 1956, p. 294, pis. 22-23). The heads have curious lateral projections, which in some examples clearly represent pulley-shaped earspools (chart 10- 67). Eyes are the slashed coffee-bean type, and noses are prominent. Figures are usually seated, legs spread apart, arms akimbo, and hands resting on knees.
Heights vary from 4-8 cm. Fragments of larger hollow figurines with red slip are in Momil ii (400-1 B . C ) . They also have coffee-bean eyes and seem to represent nude females, as did the preceding Momil i type.
Considering the fact that the people of the San Agustin Phase cut so many large human representa- tions from hard stone, figurines are remarkably rare.
While the early phase, Mesitas Inferior, clearly is coeval with Momil, it does not have the Momil figurine types. Duque (1964, drawings 12-2, - 3 , -9) illustrates three clay figurine fragments and shows small crude stone figures (op. cit., drawing 30) which are so large that they can be considered miniature statues.
Figurines do not seem to be an element in the Monagrillo-Sarigua Phases of Panama, which appar- entiy date from 2000 to possibly as late as 1000 B . C They are also lacking in the Cupica sequence, just south of Panama on the Pacific coast of Colombia.
This begins in the first centuries of the present era.
Small solid hand-made female figurines were not too common in the Ocos Phase (1400-1200 B.C.) on the Pacific coast of Guatemala; only 41 were found.
The heads were fairly well formed, faces were some- times caricatures, and the eyes were slits with very small punctations to represent the pupils (chart 10, 65-66). Figures were nude and in one case, appar- ently pregnant (M. D. Coe, 1961, p. 92, fig. 39). For some unknown reason figurines are absent from the Soconusco sequence during the Cuadros and Jocotal Phases. Conchas Phase figures (op. cit., pp. 93-98, figs. 54-58) are more abundant and show more variation (chart 10, 62-64). Most are solid, but a few are hollow. The faces tend to be plump, mouths are represented by a wide incision so that they appear open, and the pupils of the eyes are made with large punctations. Many seem to wear caps or headgear, and one has a cap with a pointed peak.
The bodies, which could not be associated with heads, are again nude females; breasts are modeled, and the navel is indicated by a large punctation. In some instances, hands and feet are crudely modeled;
in others, arms and legs taper to a point. There are also small bird and animal heads that probably come from effigies.
Larco (1941, fig. 153) shows a seated stone figure, which he tentatively identified as Gupisnique. From the coastal site of Las Haldas, Ishida (1960, figs.
60-61) illustrates fragments of a solid standing figu- rine that should date about 1200 B . C (chart 10-92).
Hands are folded on the chest as seems to be common on early South American figurines, but sex and state of dishabille are not apparent. From Ancon, Carrion (!^achot (1948, pi. 25, 23-24) illustrates two standing figurines that seem to be hollow. One is a nude female (chart 10-90), the other of undetermined sex (chart 10-91). She mentions the similarity to figu- rines of Paracas. O n the north coast molded figurines began to be made in the Mochica Phase after A.D.
500 (Strong and Evans, 1952, pp. 181-184, fig. 32).
These are both hollow and solid and represent males and females, usually nude (Bennett, 1939, figs. 5a-b, d-e, 8g). The Post-Chavin figurines of Peru are comparatively rare, frequently are hollow, and meas- ure from 15-30 cm. high. This larger size is charac- teristic for hollow figurines wherever they are found in the Americas.
Crude female figurines with coffee-bean eyes are an element of the Candelaria of northwestern Argen- tina (Alcina Franch, 1965, fig. 558). This probably has a late date judging from Inca resemblances in the associated pottery.
From the early Pit 38 at Chiapa de Corzo, Dixon (1959, p. 38, fig. 51) describes eight clay figurine fragments; arms, legs, and the head of a stone figurine
80 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME U (chart 10-61). This latter has a round blank face,
apparentiy wears a cap, and has globular projections at either side that represent earplugs. Other pottery fragments were found in the earlier Pit 50 at Chiapa de Corzo (op. cit., p. 18, fig. 5 3 a - b ) ; these include two heads, flattened on the back, one of which has definite Olmec characteristics (chart 10-60). Appar- entiy figurines were not very common in the Chiapas sequence between 1400 and 550 B . C
At Santa Cruz, Sanders (1961, p. 44) recovered only six examples of Pre-Classic figurines, including two heads. One is grotesque (chart 10-56); the other wears a headdress, and has plump facial features and punctated eyes similar to the Conchas examples from Guatemala (chart 10-55).
Peterson (1963, pp. 78-110, figs. 114-165) gives a very comprehensive discussion of the figurine sequence from the Mirador site, which extends from Mirador IV (450 B.C.) to Post-Classic times. Figurines from Phases iv-vi are predominantly nude females, and are shown both standing and seated, in some cases with legs crossed in the "lotus position." Breasts are prominantiy molded, and hands and feet poorly finished. Heads are flattened at the back, eyes indi- cated by slashes and punctations, and the figures frequentiy wear necklaces and earspools. Elaborate turban-like caps are usual. One figurine is holding an infant.
T h e Early Classic Santa Cruz Phase examples (Chiapa viii-ix; A.D. 200-600) wore turban head- dresses, and one had a beard. A large hollow head shows the nicely modeled face of an old man, and there are figurine representations of a dog, frog, and a monkey.
T h e complete figurine sequence from the excava- tions of Tehuacan Valley is not yet available. Mac- Neish (1961, fig. 15) has given a schematic presenta- tion of figurine head types. Figurines appear in Late Ajalpan (chart 10, 51-54), and are solid, nude females as well as larger hollow figures (chart 10-53).
Helmet-like headgear is characteristic and some of the heads are the Olmec baby-face type. Figurines continue on into later phases, but full details are not yet available.
Figurines are a prominent feature of the Valley of Mexico Formative, and Vaillant's typology has been followed rather closely by all who have worked in the area. Tolstoy (1958b, p. 87, graph 7) has seriated Vaillant's pottery samples, and has obtained a very clear-cut picture of the parallel figurine type sequence.
Nearly all of the figurines are nude females wearing elaborate turban headdresses and earspools (chart 10-45). A few are seated, but most are standing.
There is an extensive use of applique strips to form eyes, mouth, and ornaments. About 500 B . C there is
a tendency for the legs in some of the types to become unnaturally swollen below the hips, a form that recalls the bulbous legs on tripod vessels that developed shortiy after this time. T h e r e is also a tendency for bodies to be represented by flattened slabs of clay rather than shown in the round.
At Gualupita, George and Suzanna Vaillant (1934, pp. 50-53, figs. 14-15) found the large some- times hollow realistic Olmec style figurines accompany- ing burials. They were somewhat at a loss to place these in the Valley of Mexico sequence, a difficulty still facing present-day investigators. Porter (1953, pp. 42-43, pis. 4-5) illustrates typical figurines from Tlatilco, most of which are found with burials, an unusual use for these objects in Mesoamerica. Other examples are given by Pina Chan (1958, vol. 2, pis.
13-23). These include typical male Olmec figures (chart 10-44), women holding babies, and female figurines of Type D, the realistic, graceful style that Vaillant places early in the sequence (Vaillant, 1930, pp. 115-119). T h e Pre-Classic hand-modeled figurines are succeeded by molded figurines, which are particu- larly characteristic and numerous at Teotihuacan.
From La Venta, T r e s Zapotes, and Cerro de las Mesas, Drucker (1952, p p . 132-141, pis. 23-41;
1943a, pp. 76-90, pis. 26-27; 1943b, pp. 63-66, fig.
155, pis. 27-43, 4 9 - 5 2 ; Weiant, 1943, p p . 84-111, pis. 1-45) established a figurine classification modeled after Vaillant's, which to this reader at least, makes littie contribution to problems of chronology. There is a basic similarity to the Valley of Mexico Pre- Classic in that most are nude females, standing, with poorly modeled arms a n d feet, and usually wearing turbans, somewhat simpler in arrangement than those in the highlands. T h e baby-face, droopy mouth Olmec figures wearing helmets are somewhat more common, as are males with beards and a curious peaked cap (chart 10-31). T h e old m a n or "Lirios" type is particularly common from Tres Zapotes (Drucker, 1943a, pis. 55-61). Headdresses in many cases re- semble helmets, and the pupils of the eyes and the corners of the mouths are usually indicated by large punctations (chart 10, 33-34). Hollow figurines occur at Tres Zapotes (chart 10-32) and Cerro de las Mesas.
T h e jade figurines at La Venta are usually found in caches or in burials. All represent baby-faced males, who are either seated with legs crossed or standing with the bent knees of the achondroplastic dwarf.
Large hollow baby-faced figurines, solid Olmec baby faces, and ball players decorated wdth asphalt were found by M. D. Coe at San Lorenzo (chart 10, 38-39). Punched eyes are absent; these seem to be a
81 local marker for the 800-500 B . C time horizon, being
also characteristic of Conchas i in Guatemala.
Garcia Payon (1966, p p . 125-167) gives a thorough discussion of the figurines found at El Trapiche and Chalahuites on the central coast of Veracruz. Although his classification is simpler and occurrences are tabu- lated by levels, the chronology seems to be littie clearer than that in the Olmec area, and approxi- mately the same types are illustrated. Animal figurines are found in small numbers in both these complexes.
In marked contrast to these simple Pre-Classic figu- rines are the large, hollow, complex figures illustrated by Medellin Zenil (1960) from the Proto-Classic sites of central Veracruz.
MacNeish (1954, pp. 586-589) analyzed the figures from his and Ekholm's (1944) excavations in the Huasteca for chronological differences, and developed
18 sequential types (MacNeish, 1954, fig. 20). The Olmec-like "pseudo baby face" type, falls in the Aguilar Phase dating about 800 B . C T h e related negroid type runs from about 800-1 B . C I n general MacNeish's and Ekholm's figurines are quite compa- rable to those of the Olmec area and the Valley of Mexico, and it is probable that a similar sequence prevailed in both regions.
Over 500 figurines were found in the excavation of the Snaketown site of southern Arizona (Gladwin, et al., 1937, p. 233, pi. 195-207). These rather simple handmade nude females are obviously crude imita- tions of the Mesoamerican Formative examples.
Many are armless, have exaggerated hips, and the legs end in points rather than modeled feet; others are seated. Figurines run through the Hohokam sequence and the changes in form have been worked out by Haury (op. cit., fig. 114).
Even cruder female figurines are rare in the Basket Maker iii sites of the San J u a n River region in north- em New Mexico. Obviously an introduced trait, figurines did not become a feature of the succeeding Anasazi. After A.D. 500 clay figurines are found in Oregon in the Wakemup ii Phase (Butler, 1959).
The earliest figurines in the eastern United States are from the Poverty Point Phase in the Lower Mississippi Valley (1200-400 B . C ; chart 10, 24-27).
While 13 are discussed by Ford and Webb (1956, pp. 49-50, fig. 16), additional collections now make a total of 91 fragments available for study. There is no difficulty about the classification of Poverty Point figurines, for they all conform to one type. They represent nude females, sometimes pregnant, seated, with arms and legs shown by rounded projections.
The hips are wide, but other sexual features are poorly represented. Most of the heads are broken off and few have been found. Heads attached to torsos are poorly modeled, and features are represented by
simple slashes. O n some there appears to be a belt around the waist. A red jasper figurine from the Jaketown site has facial features represented by incising (chart 10-23), but the body is a simple rectangular slab. A similar but cruder sandstone slab figurine comes from the succeeding Marksville Phase (chart 10-20), as does a standing figure made of quartz (chart 10-22). There is also a fragment of the head of a hollow figurine (chart 10-21). Rare clay figurines were made in the Lower Mississippi until about A.D. 600 (chart 10, 16-19; Ford, 1951, fig. 44).
Figurines are a fairly rare trait in fully developed Hopewell sites (100 B . C - A . D . 200) in Illinois and Ohio. T h e remarkable figurines from Knight Mound, Illinois, described by McKern, Titterington, and Griffin (1945), are well modeled and represent both standing males and females, and females seated in a peculiar position with the legs bent to the side (chart 10, 5-8). The men wear breechcloths and the women, wrap-around skirts. Similar but cruder figures from other Illinois sites represent standing figures with the knees slightiy flexed, a position very reminiscent of the standing jade figures from the Olmec site at La Venta (chart 10, 10-11).
Realistic figurines are illustrated by Willoughby from the Turner group of earthworks in Ohio (chart 10, 1-4; Willoughby, 1922, pp. 71-74, pis. 20-21).
Male figures wear breechcloths, earspools, and a sort of headdress with knobs on it. They are shown standing, or seated, either cross-legged or with knees drawn up to the chest. One figure is kneeling, seated on his feet. A complete female figure wears a wrap- around skirt and has the hair arranged in a bun on the back of the head. These figures, as well as the
"Knight" figurines from Illinois, were painted.
From the Mandeville site in Georgia, dating in Hopewell times, there is another realistic female dressed in a wrap-around skirt, and the upper torso and head of a figure wearing an elaborate turban (chart 10, 14-15; McMichael, 1964, pi. 8a, j - k ) .
In the Weeden Island burial mounds (A.D. 400- 600), along the northwest coast of Florida, Moore (1902) found a series of hollow, standing male or female figures, 9-24 cm. high (chart 10, 12-13).
These sometimes wear cap-like headdresses and have openings in the backs of their head so that they could serve as containers. These are several centuries later than the small solid Hopewell figurines, and their plump proportions are reminiscent of the Late Formative hollow figurines of Mesoamerica and Ecuador. Hunchback hollow human figure vessels, frequentiy kneeling and sometimes with spine showing as though they represent preserved bodies, occur in the eastern United States on the late Mississippian time level in Tennessee and Missouri. Small solid
82 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY VOLUME 11
human and animal adornos attached to vessel rims have a similar date; however, true figurines are extremely rare after A.D. .500.
Summary
In general terms, there is a certain consistency in the Formative figurine sequences. Stone figurines, while rare, tend to be early. More attention is given to faces than to other parts of the body. The earliest clay figurines are nude females, sometimes obviously pregnant. Arms and legs either taper to points or in some cases are missing. Later in each sequence, both sexes are represented, and the figures wear clothing: wrap-around skirts for the females, and breechcloths for the males. Except in the Olmec region, large hollow figures also tend to be a late element.
There are some inter-areal comparisons of interest.
Hair arrangement is emphasized in the Early Forma- tive of South America, while helmets and caps are more popular in Mesoamerica. The Valdivia female figurines have the parting of the hair indicated by a wide groove. This trait is also present in Olmec figurines which do not wear head covering. Coe has suggested that this is an attribute of the were-jaguar.
It could be explained, however, as a possible heritage from the earlier representations. This same parting of the hair is found on Poverty Point figurines from the Mississippi Valley. Many examples of two-headed females come from Valdivia and Tlatilco. This may be representation of a rare biological phenomenon, but perhaps it is significant in that so far as is known, it is confined to the Early Formative in both regions.
While the earliest figurines in both South America and North America are small and solid, and the larger hollow figurines appear at a later date, the two classes are found together at the beginning of the Veracruz and Tehuacan sequences in Mesoamerica.
Male figurines with beards and wearing peaked caps date about A.D. 1 on coastal Ecuador and Vera- cruz. Occasional representations of beards are found earlier on the large Olmec stone heads at La Venta, and later in the Mochica Phase of north coast Peru.
01ro.ec figurines, usually made of jade on the Gulf coast of Mexico, represent achondroplastic dwarfs standing with the knees flexed. This flexed-knee stance is found on the famous Adena stone pipe (chart 10-9), and nearly all of the pottery figurines that have come from the Illinois and Ohio Hopewell sites.
T h e relative abundance of figurines can be measured only subjectively. Fairly common in Ecuador, hand- made figurines are rare in the early phases of Peruvian Formative, and absent thereafter. They are rather common through the Mesoamerican Formative, and
become abundant when the molding technique began to be used in the early centuries of this era. In the Mississippi Valley and the eastern United States, hand-made figurines are practically confined to the Poverty Point-Hopewellian time level, where they are fairly infrequent, and disappear after A.D. 500. As in Peru, this looks like an introduced trait that lost its popularity after a few centuries. Mold-made figurines were never made in North America.
Comparison
Nude female figurines, which later acquire clothing, are a feature of Middle and Late J o m o n in Japan.
There is also a tendency toward exaggeration of the hips and thighs as is seen in Late Formative Meso- american examples (J. E. Kidder, 1957, pp. 41-47, figs. 40-43). A detailed chronological comparison should prove most interesting.
Tubular and Platform Pipes
C H A R T 11
In 1948 Porter published Pipas Precortesianas, a definitive study of available information on the history of smoking pipes in the Americas. T h e principal defect of this study was that, in the absence of the radio- carbon dates, she accepted the too late calendrical guesses of Ford and Willey (1941) for eastern North America. T h e basic thesis seems to be correct. Pipes developed from tubular to platform, to elbow and block forms in the eastern United States. T h e change from a one-piece "self pipe" to those having inserted wood stems is an important marker for early and late forms. Then about A.D. 900 platform pipes, which had survived and acquired characteristic forms on the Texas periphery, spread rapidly to Mexico and to South America as far as the Argentine and Chile.
Spaulding (1946) has suggested that the tubular pipe, the earliest form preserved to archeology, de- veloped from the bone tubes used by shamans of north- ern Siberia and the Dorset culture of the American Arctic for extracting evil spirits in curing ceremonies.
This seems a probable theory since it would account lor the ceremonial and curing aspects of pipe smoking among the historic Indian groups.
What may be the earliest examples of tubular and elbow pipes of stone are found in the Congdon ii Phase of Oregon, which Butler (1959) thinks begins somewhere between 1500 and 1000 B . C
Meighan (1959) has discussed the distribution of pipes in coastal California. Long tubular steatite pipes first appear in the Late Horizon, which runs from A.D.
300 to the beginning of the Historic Period. In the